DU business studies faculty arranges evening MBA admission test amid pandemic

Dhaka University’s Faculty of Business Studies has made arrangements for admission tests for evening MBA course keeping the authorities in the dark when all academic activities across the country, except online classes, have remained suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The admission test for the 45th batch of the course is scheduled to be held at Azimpur Government Girls School and College in the capital from 11am to 12pm on Friday, according to a letter sent by the faculty’s acting dean Professor Muhammad Abdul Moyeen to the teachers.

The faculty has not posted notice on the tests on the university’s website. It has not asked for the administration’s permission for the tests either.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman said he talked to Prof Moyeen after learning about the matter from journalists.

“He said he will tell me about it in detail tomorrow (Friday). I can’t say anything now without getting the details,” the VC said.

Moyeen did not take calls or respond to text messages for comments.

The University Grants Commission or UGC had last year ordered an end to such evening courses in public universities after President Abdul Hamid expressed his displeasure over the issue.

The teachers remain busy with the evening courses and have no time for the regular students, the students complain.

Hamid, ex-officio chancellor of all universities, highlighted the issue as he spoke at the 52nd Convocation of the Dhaka University in December, 2019.

Dhaka University later formed a committee with the deans of its five faculties to review the courses.

The committee in its report on Feb 9 this year recommended making a unified guideline on the evening courses. Another committee of 18 was formed to make the guidelines.

The second committee could not complete its job due to the coronavirus outbreak that forced all the educational institutions to remain shut since mid-March.

As many as 35 departments and institutes of the university run 69 evening courses, according to the first committee’s report. The courses admit as many as 7,302 students every year. The number of teachers involved with the courses is 725.

Business studies faculty has the most number of evening courses. All of its nine departments run such courses that admit 2,965 students a year. As many as 230 teachers of the faculty are involved in the evening courses.